Chinese court finds 2 grassroots activists guilty

BEIJING (AP) — A Beijing court said it had found two more activists from the New Citizens movement guilty Wednesday of disturbing public order and sentenced one of them to prison.

Hou Xin and Yuan Dong were convicted of gathering a crowd to disturb public order, the Haidian district court said on its microblog, the same charge that New Citizens founder Xu Zhiyong was convicted of on Sunday. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

The court said Hou’s crime was deemed “relatively light,” and that it was sparing her from punishment. Yuan was sentenced to a year and a half in prison.

Hou’s charge stemmed from her unfurling banners with three other people in a Beijing commercial district calling for the disclosure of officials’ assets.

Xu founded the grassroots New Citizens movement to promote clean governance and fairness in education. His fledgling campaign became a target of a clampdown by authorities after it inspired people across the country to gather for dinner parties to discuss social issues and occasionally to unfurl banners in public places in small rallies.